Redemption Within
Reach For
The American Empire
By Jason Miller
16 August, 2005
Countercurrents.org
America's
"strong and resolute" Commander in Chief is safely enjoying
a five week vacation on his Texas ranch. Yes, that would be the ranch
he owns by virtue of that silver spoon that was dangling out of his
mouth as he passed down the birth canal. Following his example from
Vietnam, his daughters remain stateside as Bush pontificates the nobility
of the cause for which 2,000 Americans have died in Iraq. Despite his
unflinching conviction, Mr. Bush lacks the courage to confront Cindy
Sheehan and explain to her why her son really died. Ultimately George
Bush bears the responsibility for the death of Casey Sheehan, yet he
refuses to take a few minutes of his precious "R&R" to
impart his wisdom to Cindy about the noble reasons for which he is putting
our troops in harm's way. He owes her and the rest of America an answer,
but this Evangelical crusader cannot summon the mettle to meet with
her on his own doorstep.
Your lies are
revealed and your cover is blown
Support for the
war continues to wane. According to a recent poll conducted by the highly
respected, non-partisan Pew Research Center, 51% of Americans believe
that Bush deliberately misled the public about whether or not Saddam
Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (the primary justification for
initiating the war). 58% of Americans now believe that the US will not
be able to establish a democratic, stable government in Iraq (the notion
that the US would establish the Iraqi government underscores the imperialistic
nature of America's intentions). Only 43% of Americans are now predicting
a victory in Iraq. It is time to start bringing our troops home to safety
and to stop the senseless slaughter of Iraqi civilians (the "collateral
damage").
Since Saddam Hussein
had no weapons of mass destruction and no ties to Osama bin Laden, why
have 2,000 Americans and at least 15,000 innocent Iraqi civilians died
in Iraq? One could justify the American cause by stating that we toppled
a brutal dictator who committed genocide against the Kurds (native Iraqis),
but Hussein was a US ally while he was committing these atrocities (until
Bush the First duped him into invading Kuwait so the US could justify
the Gulf War against Iraq). Besides, there are multiple nations in the
grips of ruthless autocrats who are committing murders and atrocities,
and America is not rushing to the aid of those innocent victims. In
fact, the United States government has installed and supported many
murderous regimes throughout its history. In the paradigm of the Global
Empire of the United States, abuse of power and murder is acceptable
as long as it coincides with American economic and military interests.
Why the sudden pangs of concern about the plight of the Iraqi people
under Saddam, Mr. Bush?
The Grimm truth
If fairy tales were
true, the United States would be involved in the truly noble cause of
"spreading freedom", and America would have "firmly planted
the flag of liberty" in Iraq. However, reality keeps rearing its
ugly head to mock the Neocons and their fiction that the US is an altruistic,
benevolent super-power sowing the seeds of democracy in the Middle East.
For openers, consider the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqis resulting
from "collateral damage" inflicted by the American military.
Bestowing a "better government" as an altruistic gesture would
not involve obscene and scandalous profits for members of the military
industrial complex like Bechtel and Halliburton, would it? What spiritually
aware human being could overlook the widespread Iraqi civilian suffering
and death caused by the brutal economic sanctions the US spear-headed
for 10 years prior to the war and perpetuated by the American invasion
and occupation? How about the Neocon's use of lies and defiance of the
UN to initiate the invasion? Torture and abuse of prisoners of war are
not characteristic actions of a nation "spreading freedom"
or planting a "flag of liberty". Tragically, as was the case
with Vietnam, there will be no happy ending to the "Tale of the
Iraqi Invasion". Suffering, war, terror, and death are the bitter
harvest the Iraqis are reaping, and the flag firmly planted in their
soil is one of economic servitude to the American Empire.
Behind the vacuous
rhetoric about America "spreading freedom" lays a much more
sinister motive for the Iraqi invasion. The Neocons launched the war
in Iraq to begin implementing the Bush Doctrine, their strategy to advance
US global domination. Invasion and occupation of Iraq afforded them
what they believed would be a "soft target" (obviously someone
forgot to account for the challenges of "post war" Iraq) to
engage the four principles of their grand blueprint. They exercised
preemption by invading a country which they deemed a threat to the United
States. Acting in opposition to the United Nations, they attacked Iraq
unilaterally. Placing over 100,000 American troops in harm's way, they
placed Congress in a moral Catch-22 as they demanded billions of additional
dollars to perpetuate the American military's "strength beyond
challenge". Despite their constituency's growing opposition to
the war, Congress could hardly deny American troops the funding they
needed. To complete the "quadrifecta" of principles forming
the bedrock of the Bush Doctrine, the Neocons are carrying out their
morally despicable invasion and occupation under the guise of "promoting
democracy and freedom".
It is critical to
note that the chief architects of the Bush Doctrine, which ensures that
the poor and working class of America were (and will continue to be)
thrust into the inferno of war, found ways to evade conscription into
service during previous US imperialistic endeavors. Bush, Cheney, "Scooter"
Libby, Karl Rove, and Paul Wolfowitz each sat safely on the sidelines
during the Vietnam invasion, which claimed the lives of 58,000 Americans
(and an estimated 3 million Vietnamese). Donald Rumsfeld rested comfortably
in his dorm room at Princeton while 37,000 Americans died in Korea (with
an estimated 2.5 million Koreans). As a vehement opponent of US imperialistic
wars, I would laud them for choosing not to participate in those wars
were it not for the fact that now that they are ineligible for military
service (and enjoy more security than any humans on the planet), they
use the poor and working class as disposable components of their military
industrial machine to advance US corporate and plutocratic interests.
While one could argue that the current military personnel joined voluntarily,
it is quite reasonable to conclude that most US soldiers did not sign
on to die for the expansion of an imperialistic empire and the further
enrichment of America's elite.
"We the
People" still have a voice
On September 24,
United for Peace and Justice (http://unitedforpeace.org/)
and International ANSWER (http://www.internationalanswer.org/)
will orchestrate a non-violent march to the White House (involving an
anticipated hundreds of thousands of advocates for peace and social
justice). The participants will make the following demands upon the
administration:
1. Stop the war
in Iraq
2. End colonial
occupation from Iraq to Palestine to Haiti
3. Support the
Palestinian People's Right of Return
4. Stop the threats
against Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, and North Korea
5. US out of the
Philippines and Puerto Rico
6. Bring all the
troops home now
7. Stop the Racist,
anti-immigrant and anti-labor offensive at home
8. Defend Civil
Rights
9. Military recruiters
out of our schools and communities
Not coincidently,
the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, two of the American
Empire's primary vehicles for enhancing corporate profits and wielding
financial tyranny over other nations, will be meeting to plan further
economic conquest as protestors are delivering their demands to the
White House.
Without justice,
there will be no peace
What the proponents
of the Iraq invasion do not realize (or care about, perhaps) is that
peace and justice are inextricably linked. While terrorist acts are
evil and their perpetrators deserve severe consequences, they are ultimately
desperate acts of revenge against the imperialism, hubris, avarice,
abuse, and murder perpetrated by the US government for many years. I
strongly believe the United States has the right to pursue its attackers
to the ends of the Earth to render justice and to defend its people,
but that is not what the Bush administration is doing. The Neocons simply
have simply used terrorist attacks as a rationale to unleash the Bush
Doctrine. By invading and occupying a sovereign nation, America's leaders
have wasted many lives and vast resources, while fueling antipathy toward
the US and creating new terrorists. If the Neocons truly had noble intentions,
they would be employing far fewer American military forces in a much
more efficient way by hunting down and rooting out the true perpetrators
of terrorism, and they would be revising US foreign policy to root out
imperialism, economic aggression, and flagrant disregard for international
law. Instead, the Neocons chose to brutalize a nation and thumb their
collective noses at the world.
You've got to
change your evil ways, baby....
America needs to
drop its obsession with being number one. It is time for the United
States to become a member of the world community rather than a murderous
bully. Obscene over-consumption has become a hallmark of the United
States. While not all Americans fall prey to Madison Avenue's propaganda
glamorizing gluttony, many do. People of other industrialized nations
enjoy a respectable standard of living without consuming a quarter of
the world's resources (while representing only 5% of the world's population).
Other nations face reprisals and penalties for the violation of international
law. Without regard for justice, the United States wields international
law like a club or blatantly defies it, depending on what best suits
American interests at the time. Ongoing support of repressive regimes
(like Saudi Arabia's) to further America's economic interests, unflinching
support of its proxy military enforcer in the Middle East (Israel),
disregard for the plight of the Palestinians, and hypocrisy over who
gets to join the "nuclear club" are but a few more examples
of how America's government engenders more abhorrence of America and
invites continued terrorism.
While the Neocons
make a mockery of global justice with their foreign policy, the Bush
Doctrine has also enabled them to begin sweeping away the gains made
by domestic forces for social justice during the Twentieth Century.
Whether one believes that these achievements were reached with the cooperation
of men like FDR and LBJ, or that these leaders simply acquiesced to
the pressure of labor and civil rights movements, America made great
strides toward equality and justice through social programs and reforms
like Social Security, Minimum Wage laws, the Voting Rights Act, school
desegregation, Medicare, Medicaid, the advancement of women's rights,
environmental laws, and consumer protection laws. By spending $600 billion
per year on programs related to their precious military industrial complex
(consider that $600 billion represents 60% of the world's total annual
military expenditures of $1 trillion and that the US has only 5% of
the population), deepening the federal deficit to an unconscionable
$7.5 trillion, and utilizing shameless propaganda to convince the minions
of legalistic Christian sects and many undereducated Americans to act
in a self-defeating way by embracing an agenda of Social Darwinism and
global conquest, the Neocons have ensured serious setbacks to social
justice in the United States.
Remember when
the "good old days" were not so good?
Emma Goldman, a
crusader for social justice until her death in 1940, was imprisoned
by the US government during World War I for daring to criticize mandatory
conscription, and was eventually deported to Russia (with J. Edgar Hoover
presiding at her deportation hearing). Despite her US citizenship, she
was banished from the US for having the audacity to question the leaders
of the American Empire. With great clarity, she described the Empire
of her time:
"The
history of the American kings of capital and authority is the history
of repeated crimes, injustice, oppression, outrage, and abuse, all aiming
at the suppression of individual liberties and the exploitation of the
people. A vast country, rich enough to supply all her children with
all possible comforts, and insure well-being to all, is in the hands
of a few, while the nameless millions are at the mercy of ruthless wealth
gatherers, unscrupulous lawmakers, and corrupt politicians. Sturdy sons
of America are forced to tramp the country in a fruitless search for
bread, and many of her daughters are driven into the street, while thousands
of tender children are daily sacrificed on the altar of Mammon. The
reign of these kings is holding mankind in slavery, perpetuating poverty
and disease, maintaining crime and corruption; it is fettering the spirit
of liberty, throttling the voice of justice, and degrading and oppressing
humanity. It is engaged in continual war and slaughter, devastating
the country and destroying the best and finest qualities of man; it
nurtures superstition and ignorance, sows prejudice and strife, and
turns the human family into a camp of Ishmaelites."
She published these
words as part of her New Declaration of Independence in 1909. While
much changed for the better after Emma Goldman penned her thoughts,
the Neocons are ushering in an era of oppression and misery similar
to the one she described. In spite of the humanitarian gains of the
Twentieth Century, the American Empire is thriving, and Emma Goldman's
words ring as true today as they did in 1909.
In the throes
of spiritual death
For decades, J.
Edgar Hoover continued his dogged pursuit of threats to the Empire.
In the 1960's, he focused his tenacious efforts on Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., another champion of social justice who had the unmitigated
gall to speak out against US imperialism. While often dismissed as paranoid
conspiracy theory, there is even the realistic possibility of Hoover's
involvement in King's assasination. Perhaps Hoover participated, and
perhaps he did not, but the elite of the US government certainly did
not shed tears at King's demise. They were rid of a serious threat to
their agenda to keep the wealth in the hands of the few and to maintain
US global hegemony. Once he was safely dead, America's leaders could
sanitize King's message and appease black America by placing him in
the hallowed pantheon of "American heroes". While I believe
that King was truly a hero, the recent elevation of Ronald Reagan to
the status of American hero by our leaders demonstrates how little "official
hero" status means in the US.
Before he was assassinated,
King had this to say about the unfulfilled promise of America in his
1967 speech entitled Beyond Vietnam: a Time to Break Silence:
"A nation
that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense
than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.America,
the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the
way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic
death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the
pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There
is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised
hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood."
America is indeed
approaching a spiritual death. Our dark cabal of Neocon leaders, several
of whom have held positions of great power under Reagan, Bush I, and
now Bush II, are perpetuating unrestrained expansion of the American
Empire while utilizing Orwellian propaganda to convince its subjects
that they are still living in the "land of the free". They
have taken advantage of the inculcated apathy and ignorance of many
Americans to begin the erosion of civil liberties through the Patriot
Act, to increase regressive taxes while decreasing progressive taxes,
and to launch an unabashed assault on the UN rather than working to
help reform it in a way that would benefit the world, including America.
They are bankrupting the federal government to the point that it will
no longer be able to "afford" social welfare programs. They
have launched the Bush Doctrine in Iraq. Thanks to the Neocons, many
Americans are convinced that the Judicial Branch needs to be relegated
to the status of "junior partner". Bush's proposed 2006 budget
laid out aggressive cuts to social welfare programs and increases in
defense spending. The administration steadily chips away at the wall
of separation of church and state, which serves to protect both entities
from undue influence over one another. Neocon policies are assaulting
the rights of workers and consumers to enhance corporate profits. Exploiting
the alleged necessity brought on by their "war on terror",
this administration conducts many of its activities in secrecy. Under
Bush, the environment is under siege. With the Neocons at the helm,
those exhibiting xenophobia, hubris, proper support for the "American
Way", anti-intellectualism, and over-consumption are considered
to be patriots. As a nation, America is quite near spiritual bankruptcy.
Like pigs rolling in the mud, the Neocons thrive in an American culture
which promotes shallow thinking, immediate gratification, excessive
spending based on easily obtained credit, bellicose attitudes, and a
shameless narcissism devoid of empathy.
Soul of America
can be resuscitated
There is still time
for America to change course. Armed with the Constitution (an outline
of governing principles without equal), unparalleled wealth and resources,
brilliant minds, a strong capacity to rise to challenges, a melting
pot of cultures and nationalities from which to draw human resources,
and unprecedented military strength, the United States can still fulfill
its destiny and responsibility to guide humanity back to the light (http://www.worldwiderenaissance.com/mainstuff/
mainportalpage.asp?Level=Main)
through leading by example, using its power responsibly, and cooperating
with other nations rather than pursuing global domination. I know from
the responses I have received to my previously published essays that
there are many Americans ready to join in this spiritual renaissance
to direct our energy and resources away from war, hatred, and materialism,
and toward the advancement of human rights, the environment, science,
medicine, and humanity in general. Many have written me asking why I
stay here if I hate America so much. My answer is that I do not hate
America. I loathe the corruption, hatred, murder, and gluttony that
our leaders carry out and promote in the name of Americans, but I also
see the positive aspects of our nation, and its rich promise and potential.
I have no intention of leaving my homeland. I will continue to advocate
for social justice and to dissent against tyranny and corruption through
my writing. I will continue to pursue and practice my spiritual values
of moderation, non-violence (except in defense of family, friend, nation,
or self), honesty, responsibility, living within my means, acceptance
and empathy for others (regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexual
orientation), zealous pursuit of self education, commitment to my marriage,
responsible co-parenting of my children, respecting the environment,
donating money to organizations supporting charity and human rights,
teaching my children to pursue intellectual and spiritual freedom, engaging
in critical thinking, and applying a strong work ethic. My wife and
I will travel from our home in Kansas to be at the White House on September
24 to help hundreds of thousands of others delivering the demands for
social justice and peace. It is my sincere belief that there are many
others who care as much as she and I do, and it is my sincere hope that
together we can reinvigorate the soul of America.
I leave you with
one final thought, complements of Theodor Seuss Geisel from The Lorax:
Unless someone like
you cares a whole, awful lot. Things aren't going to get better, they're
NOT!
Jason Miller
is a 38 year old activist writer with a degree in liberal arts and
who works in the transportation industry. He is a husband and a father
to three boys. His affiliations include Amnesty International, the ACLU
and the Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He welcomes
responses at [email protected]
or comments on his blog at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/.